2016 WMF Formula GT Championship season
The 2016 WMF Formula GT Championship season will be the third season of the WMF Formula GT Championship, a motor racing for open-wheel cars, which is recognized by the championship's governing body, the World Motorsports Federation. The season will start in the Dasar Circuit, and will conclude in the FSpires Raceway, in the A layout. The season will see the grid expand from 18 to 22 cars, due to the addition of Scuderia Società and the breakup of AMI, Inc. / A-B Motorsports. The calendar also had changes, with the exits of the Illa Circuit and the Lund Street Circuit, with Arlax Circuit and Kingston Raceway replacing them. Andrew Knight will start the season as the defending drivers champion, having also won the Rookie of the Year honours. Teams and drivers Astoria Motorsports 1- Andrew Knight - Great Britain 71- Christian LeFriec (ROOKIE) - Great Britain Team Paykel 2- Daniel Forster - South Africa 7- Alex Florentino - Namibia Martjin Bresler Racing 3- Bryan Albertyn - South Africa 36- Hakan Özat - Turkey Skacel Racing 4- Akira Tanahashi - Japan 77- Marc Nielsen - South Africa Axion Motorsports 5- Michael Bootsma - United States 16- Yoshikatsu Taniguchi - Japan A-B Motorsports 9- Ben Sagemiller (ROOKIE) - Canada 90- Caroline Muedra (ROOKIE) - Italy No Name Racing 11- Thomas Sauerbrunn - Germany 32- Alex Julià - Andorra AMI, Inc. 12- Jodie Hill - South Africa 34- Daniel Wexford - South Africa Team Hurricane 19- Tomas Meilutis - Lithuania 28- Tuomas Sembrant - Sweden Winged Eagle Racing 20- Christian Fontana (ROOKIE) - Brazil 22- Seán Crowley-Roe (ROOKIE) - Ireland Scuderia Società 92- Éric Durance (ROOKIE) - France 96- Mikael Flynn (ROOKIE) - Canada Pre-season changes Drivers * Kyle Ledecky, Jonathan Ledecky and Alex Palotta left the series to join WMF Stock Car Racing Championship. * Seven drivers joined the series: Christian LeFriec, Ben Sagemiller, Caroline Muedra, Christian Fontana, Seán Crowley-Roe, Éric Durance, Mikael Flynn. With Caroline Muedra driving in the series, the FGTC will have a female driver for the first time ever. * Thomas Sauerbrunn joined No Name Racing, replacing Yoshikatsu Taniguchi, who went to Axion Motorsports, replacing the departing Alex Palotta. Christian LeFriec replaced Sauerbrunn at Astoria Motorsports. * Jonathan and Kyle Ledecky were replaced by Christian Fontana and Seán Crowley-Roe at Winged Eagle Racing. Teams * The Scuderia Società team joined the series. * The AMI, Inc. / A-B Motorsports's joint venture don't exist anymore. Now AMI, Inc. and A-B Motorsports are separate teams, making the field have 22 instead of 18 cars. Grands Prix * The Illa Grand Prix and the Lund Grand Prix were removed. * The Kingston Grand Prix and the Arlax Grand Prix joined the series. * The FSpires G Grand Prix will happen in 2016 for the last time in the series and will most likely replaced by an oval track in 2017. * Only the FGTC USA Grand Prix didn't change dates, staying as the 11th and penultimate round of the season. Rules * The qualifying rules are different this time around: Anyone can qualify to the race, only if the driver scores a time, at least, 2 seconds slower to have the permission to race. * The races will not be based on laps anymore, although this only qualifies to road and street courses as they will have 70-minute races. Oval tracks still have 200 laps of distance. Calendar 1- Dasar Grand Prix - May 29 2- Gurveln Grand Prix - June 12 3- FSpires G Grand Prix - June 26 4- RackFlo Grand Prix - July 10 5- Amber Grand Prix - July 31 6- Alleway Grand Prix - August 7 7- GA-Airport Grand Prix - August 21 8- FGTC German Grand Prix - September 11 9- Arlax Grand Prix - September 25 10- Kingston Grand Prix - October 9 11- FGTC USA Grand Prix - October 30 12- FSpires A Grand Prix - November 13 Category:WMF FGTC seasons